In 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began offering IT infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services -- now commonly known as cloud computing. One of the key benefits of cloud computing is the opportunity to replace up-front capital infrastructure expenses with low variable costs that scale with your business. With the Cloud, businesses no longer need to plan for and procure servers and other IT infrastructure weeks or months in advance. Instead, they can instantly spin up hundreds or thousands of servers in minutes and deliver results faster.

Today, Amazon Web Services provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world. With data center locations in the U.S., Europe, Brazil, Singapore, Japan, and Australia, customers across all industries are taking advantage of the following benefits:

AWS offers low, pay-as-you-go pricing with no up-front expenses or long-term commitments. We are able to build and manage a global infrastructure at scale, and pass the cost saving benefits onto you in the form of lower prices. With the efficiencies of our scale and expertise, we have been able to lower our prices on 15 different occasions over the past four years. Visit the Economics Center to learn more.

AWS provides a massive global cloud infrastructure that allows you to quickly innovate, experiment and iterate. Instead of waiting weeks or months for hardware, you can instantly deploy new applications, instantly scale up as your workload grows, and instantly scale down based on demand. Whether you need one virtual server or thousands, whether you need them for a few hours or 24/7, you still only pay for what you use. Visit the Architecture Center to learn more.

AWS is a language and operating system agnostic platform. You choose the development platform or programming model that makes the most sense for your business. You can choose which services you use, one or several, and choose how you use them. This flexibility allows you to focus on innovation, not infrastructure. Download the AWS Overview Whitepaper.

By signing up for AWS, you have access to Amazon’s cloud computing services. Note: The sign-up process requires a credit card, which will not be charged until you start using services. There are no long-term commitments and you can stop using AWS at any time.

To start using AWS for web hosting, watch this 10 minute video to help you get started in the cloud. This video will show you how to use a CloudFormation template to quickly launch a WordPress website on AWS, or: